Lit Hub Daily: December 11, 2023

• “It’s the thought that counts, we say of gifts, and with books, well, there’s a whole lot of thought—six hours? twelve?—required to truly appreciate one.” Lewis Buzbee on the difficulty (and joy) of giving books as gifts. | Lit Hub

• A feminist and a misogynist, a conservative and a radical: How each era has reinvented Chaucer for its own gain. | Lit Hub History

• Andrew Lam considers the transmutable photography of Binh Danh. | Lit Hub

• Parul Sehgal on James Ellroy, Merve Emre on Italo Calvino, Namwali Serpell on “hit me” novels, and more of the Best Book Reviews of 2023. | Book Marks

• “The architectures of death and dismemberment spare nothing and no one, in Gaza.” Read a dispatch from the Palestinian Youth Movement. | The New Inquiry

• Danger Sound Klaxon! The Horn That Changed History by Matthew F. Jordan has won the Diagram prize for oddest book title of the year. | The Guardian

• Alex Marshall profiles Jon Fosse. | The New York Times

• Meet the Texas parents who are fighting back against book bans locally and across the state. | Fort Worth Star-Telegram

• Are the best book covers the ones that never made it to print? Quite possibly yes. | Fast Company

Also on Lit Hub: Helen Molesworth in defense of question-seeking criticism • Why we need new stories about the ocean • Kelly Weber on kinship and writing “untraditional” erotic poems